Saturday, January 24, 2009

Tea Tasting Saturday #4 - Bai Mu Dan (White Peony)

When I first looked through "The Harney & Sons Guide to Tea," one of the things that surprised me was that Michael Harney actually recommends a few tea companies other than his own, which I thought was a very gracious thing to do. Among the other vendors he lists in the book is Upton Tea. When I realized not all the teas in the book were available in sample sizes from Harney, I consulted my latest Upton Tea catalog and ordered some of the samples there. Before the year is over I may be ordering samples from anyone who can supply them, but so far I've found the first three or four months' worth purely from Harney and Upton, and that suits me just fine since I have received excellent service from both.

This week, I wanted to mention a particular tea tasting technique Harney recommends. Or perhaps I should say "tea sniffing technique," because he basically encourages you to get your nose down in the pot and really get a good whiff of the tea leaves. I didn't know that the first smells when you remove the teapot's lid are just water because "the vaporizing rate of water is faster than that of the aromatic compounds in the leaves." Makes sense. I started doing it his way, and he is right: There is much, much more of a distinctive aroma when you pour off the tea, stick your nose as close as possible to the wet leaves, and sniff away. I don't recommend doing this with an audience, as I know I don't look very ladylike doing it, but I do think I'm educating my sniffer, and that's what it's all about!

Name of tea: Bai Mu Dan (White Peony) -- It's also known as Pai Mu Tan.

Category: White Tea

Purveyor: Upton Tea

When purchased: January 2009

Dry leaf appearance: Dark green leaves, with a noticeable variation in size. (I learned from the Harney book this is because this tea is a mix of tips and whole tea leaves.)

Scent: A stronger scent than the other white teas, and initally it reminded me of the scent of water poured of freshly boiled butterbeans or peas. Interesting!

Color: Medium goldFlavor: At first sip, this was a bit strong for my tastes, and it had a very "dry mouth" feel after I was finished sipping. Maybe I used too much tea? I tried a second cup. Hmmm. But then I added some slightly cooled water, steeped it for about four minutes, and this was perfect! If I make this tea again (and I always get at least two or more cups out of these sample packets), I will use less tea from the get-go.

Additional notes: I'm starting to pay attention to the fact that subsequent steepings can sometimes be as enjoyable as (or better than) the first one.